Chronos Club: Gran Destino Club Level
The Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs is a moderate resort at Walt Disney World. And, it is the only moderate resort with a club level—a special lounge for certain guests staying in club level rooms and suites in the tower. The Chronos Club sits high up on the 15th floor, just below the top floor.
Second Dad to the Right tangent: You press 15 on the elevator, but it’s really the 14th floor. Did you notice that most hotel towers don’t have a 13th floor? Except the Tower of Terror, which plays on triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13).
Once you arrive at the lounge, you need to have your magic band/phone/room key to enter the lounge (or you have to knock if you’re just arriving). Supposedly, security is supposed to alert the lounge that you’re coming, but unless you speak to someone, you won’t get any special treatment. If they know you’re coming, someone is waiting outside the door with an Ipad ready to check you in and give you a drink.
The not very hidden Mickey on the wall at the Chronos Club. It’s in a little reading nook my kids liked to sit in.
Just inside the lounge is a reception desk that serves as an exclusive guest services concierge desk for club level guests. It’s even the special check in spot that allows you to skip the line in the lobby (if the Ipad wasn’t ready for you). That didn’t help us because we upgraded on a whim in the lobby. It was, however, nice to get them to help us adjust our park tickets without having to wait in line.
The sign outside the Club. It says 7am, but you can get self-serve coffee starting at 6:30am. Photo Cred: Chad and Renee https://www.youtube.com/@mainstreetpartyoffour
Chronos Club Features
Past the guest services desk, you’ll enter the main room. It’s filled with couches, comfy half booths, booths, and tables to eat at. The whole far wall is a floor to ceiling window that overlooks Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios (across the parking lot and road). Far to the left are the buffets and serving areas, and there are plenty of bookshelves and living room decorations with games, books, snacks, and other items of interest. In the very back corner are the restrooms.
Shout out to Main Street Party of Four for sending me this video walkthrough.
A quick walkthrough of the Chronos Club at Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs, Disney World. Courtesy of https://www.youtube.com/@mainstreetpartyoffour
The theming of the lounge is the same Spanish, Dali-inspired design with repeated flower and geodesic patterns everywhere in the wall murals and chandeliers (with a giant “hidden” Mickey for good measure, the only overt Disney theming we saw). The design is more muted than the rest of the tower, opting for a focus on blue, beige, and white, instead of the full chromatic display elsewhere. Perhaps the goal is a more adult-focused area that’s quieter than the bars.
The lounge proved to be a great place to hang out for the adults and the kids in our party. There were lots of toys, books, games, comfortable seating, and food for every one of us. We spent a lot of time playing with a fancy checkers set made of rough granite (until the baby tried to smash everything with the pieces).
The lounge is open from 6:30am-10pm, unlike the deluxe clubs, which are open 24hrs (though they are only serviced 7am-10pm. The dress code asks you to wear anything you want except only a bathing suit or anything wet. I saw plenty of people breaking that rule with impunity, not that I cared.
The description, hours, and rules for the Chronos Club when we were there in February.
Chronos means time in Greek, which is weird for a Spanish-inspired hotel. My guess is that it’s a reference to Salvador Dali’s famous melting clocks.
Chronos Club Food
One of the best perks about staying club level is the food. The only downside to free food is that if you’re at the parks 24/7, you won’t get a chance to enjoy it.
Chronos Club Breakfast
Coffee is available from 6:30-7. It’s self-serve, and there might not be any cast members present until 7am, when it officially opens.
Then breakfast is served from 7am until 10:30. They offer a rotating menu of hot items and continental items. This was amazing because they had basic staples like Mickey waffles, eggs, and bacon that our kids loved as well as more adventurous fare for the adults.
Big shout out to Tammy at tammy@wishfulwanderingstravel.com for these great pictures.
Chronos Club Snacks
There’s two types of snacks at the Chronos Club. First, there’s the “grab them and head to the park” snacks. These include baskets of granola bars, fancy Chupa Chup lollipops, small bags of carrots, bananas, apples, goldfish, chips, and other items.
These were available all day, and you could always ask for something that was out of stock. I did see a dad hide the entire canister of lollipops on the top of a bookshelf, so his daughter would stop asking for them. If she can’t have them, nobody can have them.
Second, from 11:30am-4pm, there were light hors d’oeuvres like vegetables and dip, fruit, small tapas, and other creative snacks. It would be hard for an adult to make lunch, but they had Uncrustable brand peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids (tastefully cut in half to maintain the aesthetic), which can be a whole meal.
Vegetables, hummus, wine, and an Uncrustable? Snack of champions.
Chronos Club Evening Food
From 5-7, they had what they called hors d’oeuvres, which I call light dinner because you can make a whole meal out of it. The food at Chronos Club was extremely adventurous, which my wife and I loved, but my kids not so much. Luckily, there was a charcuterie section where my kids could eat cheese and meat to their hearts’ content.
Mostly the food was seafood (I loved the mussels), interesting meat, and vegan options, with lots of allergy-conscious choices, if you need that. It has been suggested that the Club intentionally caters to an adult audience, seeking to please convention center guests rather than typical Disney-going families, but they had enough to satisfy our picky kids.
Chronos Club Dessert
From 8-10, the Chronos Club cast members brought out the desserts. Typically, it was finger food type desserts such as truffles and macarons. But they also had packaged sugar cookies for the kids, which also were easy to take with you if you were heading out to the fireworks. If you’ve ever been to the Christmas party, the cookies were similar. Everything was amazing, and this was probably my kids’ favorite part of the lounge.
Some of the fancy dessert options. I’m not a big key lime fan, but those were phenomenal. Photo cred: tammy@wishfulwanderingstravel.com
Chronos Club Drinks
The Chronos Club also offers a plentiful number of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic. Many of them are available all day, and others come out at certain times. Some are for consumption in the lounge (or in the hotel) and others can be taken to the park (or home with you because they’re sealed). If you’re trying to get your money’s worth in order to assuage the guilt you feel for spending so much on a club level room, this is a huge part of it.
Chronos Club Alcohol
Given how expensive alcohol is at Disney World, having free alcohol is a huge plus of staying club level. Starting at noon, beer, hard seltzers (i.e., Truly), and wine are available for self-serve. The staff will also offer a variety of full-service cocktails—mostly champagne cocktails like mimosas or fruity cocktails. Sadly, there’s no bourbon to be found.
The Chronos Club beer selection. The Estrella Galicia has been replaced by the Estrella Damm Daura, which is excellent (Spanish beer) and very unique. Photo cred: tammy@wishfulwanderingstravel.com
The craft beer selection is slim, but there are some Lagunitas IPAs and a very rare Daura beer that was phenomenal. Also, later in the night they will set out other offerings such as dessert liqueurs and cordials. Finally, anything you can’t find, you can ask for—again, except bourbon.
Chronos Club Alcohol Policy
The alcohol policy is two drinks per adult, per hour, to keep people from ruining family vacations. That said, they only really enforced this rule to anyone ordering cocktails or trying to take more than two beers at a time from the fridge, which you can also take back to your room. Remember that you can do this if you want a drink after 10, when they close.
Chronos Club Non-Alcoholic Drinks
The Chronos Club also has a great selection of non-alcoholic drinks. All day long it has juice, Coke products, and bottled water in the fridge that you can drink or take into to parks or pool with a cooler bag. They also have drip coffee, tea, and an espresso machine that makes a variety of specialty coffees on demand. Finally, they have water with various fruits in it for a spa feel.
From the cast members you can also get more interesting juices like pineapple, papaya, grapefruit, or specialty mocktails. My kids loved trying the different options and pretending they were fancy. We also regularly asked for warmed whole milk for the baby.
Chronos Club Service
As I mentioned earlier, one of the key aspects of being club level is the extra level of service. Having multiple guest service cast members for only a small fraction of the tower’s guests means if you have a problem, they can solve it quickly. They helped us sort out changes and additions to our park days, and I’ve even heard of them pixie dusting with free lightning lanes.
You are also eligible for Disney Signature Services (the Club Level guest services are a part of that) that can help you get dining reservations, park reservations, and other experiences long before you arrive at the hotel, much like a travel agent. If you book ahead of time (unlike us), you can take more advantage of these services.
As mentioned in the food and drink portion, other cast members are available for specialty drinks, out of stock items, and other requests. Finally, in your room, the Mousekeeping is more attentive than the rest of the tower (more frequency, possible turn down service and chocolates). But since Mousekeeping has been one of the hardest hit parts of Disney staffing issues since Covid, the level of service has been changing a lot for club level and non-club level guests, so I won’t attempt to give you specifics.
Is Staying Club Level at Coronado Springs Worth It?
If the main goal of your Disney trip is to save as much money as possible, it’s probably not worth it because the price tag is high. That being said, you will feel like you’re saving a lot of money with all of the free food and drinks, especially if your stay is relaxed enough that you have ample time to spend in the lounge. If the goal is a stress-free trip, this might be the way to feel less stressed about money if you pay for the hotel well in advance (and have forgotten that pain).
We had a baby with us (and two other kids), so having the suite (not all club level rooms are suites) for separate sleeping arrangements and having cast members in the lounge help with bottles was a significant benefit for us from a relaxation standpoint.
The financial benefits of the Chronos Club dramatically increase based on how big your party is as well. It’s not like a cruise where you pay for the perks per person. The significant price increase only applies to the room, so if your room or suite is full, that’s significantly more free food and drinks.
Chronos Club: Is Coronado Springs Club Level for Kids?
Since we went there with kids, and I mentioned that some argue that the Chronos Club is designed to appeal to adults, you might be wondering if we felt that it appealed to our kids as well. For us, the answer is a resounding yes. This is Disney after all, and apart from a couple bars and Victoria and Albert’s, they are expecting to have at least a few kids everywhere, so they are prepared to cater to them.
First of all, it appeals to adults with kids. Not having to provide every meal and drink, or having to fetch every item was a huge benefit to us. It’s also nice to not have a room full of breakfast food every day. And while I enjoy the food at Disney, it wears on me paying for the uninteresting but still expensive food that my kids request.
Proud of my second daughter for not moving her back row. Will I beat her before the baby destroys the game?
Now I know adults without kids may take exception to my opinion, but Disney probably isn’t the right vacation destination if you don’t want to be around kids. That being said, I tried to make sure my kids weren’t obnoxious, and no one seemed mad at me…or maybe I’m oblivious.
Things for Kids at Chronos Club
While I mentioned that the main food offerings were often adventurous, they also had plenty of options for the unsophisticated palate for every meal—cereal, Mickey Waffles, goldfish, granola bars, charcuterie (i.e., fancy Lunchables), and desserts. And most items that weren’t part of the hot buffet could be obtained just by asking, even if it was long after they put them away. The same was true of the drinks. There were plenty of basic and interesting drinks, water, and sodas that kept our older girls happy.
While the aesthetic was very, very subtly Disney-themed, creating a more adult feel, there were plenty of games, toys, and age-appropriate books for our elementary age girls. But honestly, they were happy to spend time just looking at Hollywood Studios and EPCOT in the distance.
If you’re bringing kids to Disney World, check out my 9yo daughter’s articles about the best rides at each park such as the best rides at Magic Kingdom for kids. I also put together ideas for kids at Disney Springs.
Things for Babies/Toddlers at Chronos Club
After that take on having my kids, it probably won’t surprise you that I think the Chronos Club is great for babies and toddlers. We took my son there when he had just turned one. They had several high chairs, changing tables in both the men’s and the women’s restrooms, age-appropriate toys and books, and there was plenty of space to maneuver even a large jogging stroller throughout the lounge.
There was also a wide array of food for him to eat. Honestly, he eats better than my older kids anyway. The cast members were great at interacting with him and bringing warm milk when we needed it for bottles at random times.
The perfect napping spot. Quiet for the baby, free food and drinks for me. Of course, I’m here while the rest of my family enjoyed the Tron cast preview without me.
The only drawback to having a really little kid at the Chronos Club was that some of the decorations within reach were fragile or loud if played with, so we had to watch him carefully when he wasn’t strapped in the stroller or highchair.
All in all, having a suite with an extra bathroom (for him to sleep in), and the convenience of the lounge made taking a baby to Disney World much easier. If you are thinking about bringing a baby or toddler to Disney World, click on that link.
Conclusion and Further Reading
So that’s the Chronos Club, the Club Level Lounge at the Gran Destino Tower in the Coronado Springs Resort at Disney World (that’s a long name). It has great food, drinks, snacks, places to relax, and great service.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Gran Destino Tower in general, check out this article.
The Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace has a great location near Disney Springs, affordable rooms, good amenities, and more. Here’s my review from our stay.